A shopkeeper fears his personal information may have been passed on during a stay in hospital after being “inundated” with calls and emails since his release.

Raymond Morrell, 51, who runs Abbey Off-Licence in Highbridge Street, Waltham Abbey, suffered a slipped disc while at home in mid January and was taken by ambulance to Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, where he stayed for two weeks.

He says that he was never contacted by personal injury lawyers or compensation firms before his treatment, but has received eight messages since he started counting on Wednesday and more before that.

The resident of Monkswood Avenue said: “Never having received phone calls or texts about injury claims, I am now inundated with them.

“I’ve had phone calls to the shop from a legal firm.

“It might be a coincidence, but I gave the off licence email address and number to the hospital as my contact details and they’ve only come to the business email.

“I’m not receiving anything on my Gmail account, which I didn’t give out.

“Somehow, I go into hospital and people seem to know.

“If they’ve got access to that, what other information have they got access to?

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“When I spoke to a customer who works for London Ambulance Service, he said it might be worth contacting the East of England Ambulance Service, but would not divulge any more information.”

An outpatient at Whipps Cross hospital in Leytonstone, 32-year-old Stephen Currey, had similar fears after he was contacted by personal injury lawyers hours after his return home in 2011, although the hospital denied any details had been leaked.

A spokesman for the Princess Alexandra hospital trust said: “In our experience compensation claim companies have many ways of obtaining information about incidents which do not involve any contact with hospitals or staff.

“We do not share data or information about patients with any commercial organisation. Patient confidentiality is extremely important and is taken very seriously.

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“Staff are aware of the repercussions of breaching patient confidentiality and the serious nature in which the Trust would manage any breach.”

An East of England Ambulance spokesman said: “We don’t pass on details at all. It’s quite a bizarre case and I’ve not heard of anything like it before.”

I get contacted on occasion by various people including PI lawyers; they are a pain in the backside but usually I text back and tell them to go and chase an ambulance. These texts are completely out of the blue and very often it's just speculative.

I get contacted on occasion by various people including PI lawyers; they are a pain in the backside but usually I text back and tell them to go and chase an ambulance. These texts are completely out of the blue and very often it's just speculative.inézc

I get contacted on occasion by various people including PI lawyers; they are a pain in the backside but usually I text back and tell them to go and chase an ambulance. These texts are completely out of the blue and very often it's just speculative.

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LakeBreeze says...10:19am Fri 22 Feb 13

Actually this happened to me after I was treated at Whipps Cross A & E for a minor injury. I suddenly started to receive texts specifically about injury compensation. The texts "died down" after a while and I no longer receive them. Occam's razor and simple logic suggests there is a direct correlation, I'm sorry but it's pretty obvious. It's not a delusion. It actually happens and is confirmed "open secret" in the United States all the time. Another negative thing that has "hopped the pond." Someone is not owning up to something because there's no doubt in my mind that contact information is being sold on.

Actually this happened to me after I was treated at Whipps Cross A & E for a minor injury. I suddenly started to receive texts specifically about injury compensation. The texts "died down" after a while and I no longer receive them.
Occam's razor and simple logic suggests there is a direct correlation, I'm sorry but it's pretty obvious. It's not a delusion. It actually happens and is confirmed "open secret" in the United States all the time. Another negative thing that has "hopped the pond."
Someone is not owning up to something because there's no doubt in my mind that contact information is being sold on.LakeBreeze

Actually this happened to me after I was treated at Whipps Cross A & E for a minor injury. I suddenly started to receive texts specifically about injury compensation. The texts "died down" after a while and I no longer receive them. Occam's razor and simple logic suggests there is a direct correlation, I'm sorry but it's pretty obvious. It's not a delusion. It actually happens and is confirmed "open secret" in the United States all the time. Another negative thing that has "hopped the pond." Someone is not owning up to something because there's no doubt in my mind that contact information is being sold on.

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LakeBreeze says...10:22am Fri 22 Feb 13

I wanted to add that yes, "speculative" texts like this are a fact too, and we've all had those. But when very, very specific soliciting starts up in a full-flooding, spamming manner following a specific life-event such as a hospital visit, it's naive to go on thinking that's random. As I mentioned before, this kind of selling of information is an everyday and fully acknowledged -- though no less hated -- phenomenon in the USA and it's here now too, unfortunately.

I wanted to add that yes, "speculative" texts like this are a fact too, and we've all had those.
But when very, very specific soliciting starts up in a full-flooding, spamming manner following a specific life-event such as a hospital visit, it's naive to go on thinking that's random. As I mentioned before, this kind of selling of information is an everyday and fully acknowledged -- though no less hated -- phenomenon in the USA and it's here now too, unfortunately.LakeBreeze

I wanted to add that yes, "speculative" texts like this are a fact too, and we've all had those. But when very, very specific soliciting starts up in a full-flooding, spamming manner following a specific life-event such as a hospital visit, it's naive to go on thinking that's random. As I mentioned before, this kind of selling of information is an everyday and fully acknowledged -- though no less hated -- phenomenon in the USA and it's here now too, unfortunately.

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inézc says...11:27am Fri 22 Feb 13

I've had to attend hospitals professionally to see people (not for PI matters)- it would be too spooky to think that this was related.

I've had to attend hospitals professionally to see people (not for PI matters)- it would be too spooky to think that this was related.inézc

I've had to attend hospitals professionally to see people (not for PI matters)- it would be too spooky to think that this was related.

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Slodown says...1:40pm Fri 22 Feb 13

Sounds like "someone" is getting an occasional brown envelope from one of these firms of parasites. Once one of these firms get your contact details it's like a feeding frenzy of sharks. They contribute NOTHING to the economy. They simply suck money and resources from the system.

Sounds like "someone" is getting an occasional brown envelope from one of these firms of parasites.
Once one of these firms get your contact details it's like a feeding frenzy of sharks.
They contribute NOTHING to the economy. They simply suck money and resources from the system.Slodown

Sounds like "someone" is getting an occasional brown envelope from one of these firms of parasites. Once one of these firms get your contact details it's like a feeding frenzy of sharks. They contribute NOTHING to the economy. They simply suck money and resources from the system.

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